UKC

We have a scraggy, damp, moss and weed-infested patch of grass (calling it lawn is being more somewhat generous) behind our summerhouse that I plan to repurpose. This involves stripping it back to bare earth. I had a tentative go at this yesterday but didn't get very far. Some of the grass clumps and weeds have fairly tough, deep roots so the technique we use elsewhere to reprofile the edges of the main lawn (using a knife and lifting the turf in strips) does not work very well/at all.

Is there a straightforward way to get about this task using hand tools? Or is there a power tool that could tackle it and get the job done in short order? At the rate I was 'progressing' yesterday, the summer will be over before I get the area fully cleared!

In reply to Martin W:

You could hire a rotavator or turf cutter. By hand you should cut a grid pattern into the area and then dig the square sods out with a spade.

In reply to Martin W:

I dug mine out and reshaped it using a Chillington crocodile hoe with an 8'' blade.
It was still hard work but I can thoroughly recommend this tool.

In reply to Martin W:

I have a 2-3kg Mattock which is the best investment we've ever made in terms of garden landscaping tools. I have used it for jobs like this many times and it makes light work of it. Break it all up with the mattock, make sure its deep (one spade depth at least) and turn it over. I would recommend a good pair of boots (maybe even steal toe caps) and a pair of goggles though. Things tend to go flying if you're not careful.

Mine's from Mole Valley Farmers, wooden and looks more robust than this, but here's one from Homebase:

http://www.homebase.co.uk/en/homebaseuk/roughneck-5lb-mattock-set-273253

In reply to The Green Giant: For me a rotivator is the way forward,but with the best will in the world those weeds and moss will come back unless you are prepared to maintain it regularly.
We had a new lawn put in by a gardening firm some years back and it was great but I didn't maintain it regularly. I started but made a real dogs of it.
I bit the bullet and handed it over to the Green Thumb company who are doing a great job with it and have a regular monthly programme. For me it's as cheap as buying "treatments" and doing it myself and they do all the work. They just deal with lawns.

In reply to Co1in H:
Our lawn was knackered with moss and weeds and we got a guy round who for £20 a shot came and put stuff on it at regular intervals. I wasn't convinced but after about six months the lawn was in super nick, and I did not need to lift a finger.
It seems better stuff than the weed n feed you get in garden centres

In reply to Martin W: Thanks all for the suggestions and ideas. Looks like I'll be working my way through them, from the no-cost (I do already have a mattock, can't think why I forgot about it) up to the most-cost, if necessary!

In reply to Martin W:

Borrow TCs moles for a while.

In reply to Martin W:

Stripped my awful lawn laid by builder on heavy clay. It took three weeks with a mattock, after first dividing it into a grid, as mentioned above. Now have my second lawn to do which is three times bigger, so i will cover with black plastic sheeting and then rotovate, hoping to kill off the weeds at the same time. Quite frankly wish the builder would just leave it bare, rather than lay a lawn on top of building rubble & clay! It's twice as much work. My new Mediterranean garden planted last autumn, now looks fantastic, much more interesting and better to look at than boring grass....and needs very little maintenance!

In reply to Sean Kelly:


This makes me feel dreadfully middle-aged, but I'd really like some more details about that, The 'front garden' is a sea of gravel over matting over building rubble and godawful clay, and I'd like to do something to improve it which requires as little maintenance as possible...

T.

In reply to Martin W:

Nuke the site from orbit, it's the only way to be sure!

In reply to Pursued by a bear:

I'm afraid that there is no easy way to say this but it involves hard labour! I actually had a look at some Med type gardens down here in the SW before drawing up my design. I then rotovated in 2 dumpy bags of compost and forest bark before planting. The whole was covered with black weed suppressant matting and after planting the whole was covered in 2 dumpy bags worth of gravel. Each individual plant had course gravel in the hole base, and then planted in a course grit and compost + Blood & Bone fertilizer mixture. All paths had a base of stone chippings (scalpings) on top of which was plastic matting topped with gravel or sandstone flags(bedded on dabs of mortar. Patio area was scalpings with kiln fired sand on top to bed in the stone pavors. As I said above, it was hard labour!

In reply to Sean Kelly:
Blimey! Hard labour is a way of gardening life here, but I suspect I need to do more planning and eat quite a lot of Shredded Wheat before I tackle all that. I'm beginning to wonder if in order to get things that are, eventually, low maintenance you have to put the effort you'll save in up front.

But thanks for the information. I shall muse a little more before committing myself...

T.

In reply to Martin W:
A couple of pigs would clear the area pretty quickly, but may not be practical for you!

In reply to Martin W:

I just spent the afternoon shovelling up scores of bucketloads of gravel and cat poo in anticipation of laying a lawn. I'll be lucky if my back's not fecked in the morning.

Wishing you luck with yours!

In reply to mikenty:


It's not that large an area. I reckon one pig could do it in a day, if sufficiently motivated. And we like pigs! Perhaps we could borrow one for a day or two - maybe in return for a few sausages when it undergoes its "career change"...

The plan is to replace the 'manicured' grass with a bit of wildflower 'meadow'. It doesn't matter if it all ends up looking a bit raggy because it's largely out of sight behind the summerhouse, but past experience suggests that you need to extirpate the existing grass otherwise the new seed won't take.

As a slight complication: there's a hawthorn smack bang in the middle of the area in question. We planted it ourselves a few years back so we don't want to lose it, or risk damaging it.

In reply to Martin W:

Could just put an advert on gumtree with an address, saying you've got a problem getting rid of some 'weed' behind your summerhouse, then wait a day or two.
Sit back and watch as the local Neds start walking about smoking dried dandelions.